The Taser wasn't a bad idea at all

[relentless1]

Tasing Goldberg to end the streak has gotten such a bad rap and has been treated so callously, like as if it was the most goofy thing to do in the either world.

I say how else were you going to get the belt off Goldberg and still keep him a monster? He had already shown in his mini feud with the Flock that conventional weapons didn't affect him so I ask you; what was so bad about using a taser on him? Was it what followed that lumped it in with a supposed "bad idea" all around??

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I don't know if it was the taser so much as it was the who followed by what went down the Nitro after.

It was beyond shocking when Goldberg lost the title. He hadn't lost steam yet and there really was no need to take the title off him. Granted this was Nash's first WCW title, but it was freaking Nash. He didn't need the title, certainly not at that point. WCW was failing to build its own stars, and they went with giving a then 40 year old Nash his first title.

The finger poke of doom the following night just made things worse. At least had they kept the title on Nash and made the Wolfpack heels it would have had some semblance of freshness. The fact that it was Hogan at the head of the nWo elite made it automatically stale. And let's face it, the elite came out to the Wolfpack theme, they were the Wolfpack lead by Hogan.

Then they chose to embarrass Goldberg pretty hard afterwards with the massive tasering and spray painting incident. If someone was actually tasered that many times in real life, they likely would have gone into cardiac arrest.

The stun gun incident was so reviled because Goldberg never managed to recover it. The remainder of the career of WCW's hottest star of the late 90s was marked by a series of diminishing returns.

All men fall to a stun gun. They might as well have used a real gun and made Goldberg lay down. It just kind of breaks the basic promise of the premise of wrestling. Dudes or chicks fight, toughest one wins.

One of the problems with undefeated streaks and invincible athletes is that you write yourself into a corner. Look at what WWE is doing with Lesnar today. How are we supposed to believe that someone can hurt him if he just bloodies and destroys everyone.

Here's how I would have booked the end of Goldberg's streak. I wouldn't have taken the title off of him in early 99, and not the way that they did. It never should have been Nash or anyone in the core nWo. They needed to bring in a new star, and someone that wasn't over 40.

Hall, Nash and Hogan were all over 40 years old at the time of the tasering/finger poke of doom. They should have waited the year and built up someone new to beat Goldberg. I'm not sure who that should have been, but not Nash.

Booker T was about to become one of their top stars, as was Scott Steiner. There really wasn't a very viable option and sooner than later they would have had to either build an "anti-Goldberg" or do something like the taser.

The anti-Goldberg would have been a heel who goes on a cheating streak to become undefeated. It could have been an existing guy, or someone young. Palumbo, O'Haire, Jindrak and Stasiak were all coming up through their system.

The taser would be remembered better if it wasn't followed by the finger poke of doom and the total molestation of Goldberg that followed it. Had Nash had a real run with the title and the two nWo factions pulled the double turn, then it would be remembered better.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

In my opinion, it really wasn'T the taser finish that was the problem, even through you could have found alot of other ways to end the streak, but the follow up to it the next night. If they would have keep goldberg strong after getting screwed by hall & Nash, then we wouldn't really be talking about this right now but the decided to make him look like a complete idiot in front of his hometown. The finger poke of doom and the whole build up to it made us remember how all of this started the night before and killed any momentum Goldberg had as a main event star and that pretty much why people still talk about how the streak ended.

 

[Kodo Sawaki]

Whole booking of that was ridiculous idea from start to finish. But if you count that Nash has booked that match you can see why.

 

[Khalifa]

I say how else were you going to get the belt off Goldberg and still keep him a monster?

100%. I don't see how Goldberg could of lost another way without keeping him in the same standard like he was when he was undefeated. The only problem I think anyone should have, but I have never seen it brought up as the only thing, is that it was at Starcade. Imagine Taker losing his undefeated WM streak to Kane or someone like that did a Scott Hall.

Starcade was one of my first wrestling videos. We didn't have Nitro or Thunder on down here so PPVs was the only thing I could see. This meant that I didn't understand the proper factors about the story. When Nash beat Goldberg I was so happy, 7 year old me was so happy. So I don't think it was a bad idea to take the title of Goldberg after going '173-0'.

So I gotta agree, I think it wasn't actually bad booking, the only bad thing was when it was. Everything else like Goldberg losing, how he lost and even what happened during the match I think they all got correct.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Imagine if people are tiring of your product and then you choose to throw a screwball ending to the most important match of your most important PPV (not cheap) of the year. The taser is a minor detail. The expectation was too high for the execution and outcome and the taser was just an easy scapegoat.

But it was like 18 years ago so I don't really remember.

 

[Xpyred013]

Imagine if people are tiring of your product and then you choose to throw a screwball ending to the most important match of your most important PPV (not cheap) of the year. The taser is a minor detail. The expectation was too high for the execution and outcome and the taser was just an easy scapegoat.

But it was like 18 years ago so I don't really remember.

Absolutely agree. The problem was that the Goldberg Match of Starrcade 98 wasnt the first time WCW dropped the ball on their most important PPV. The year prior we had a whole year and half build up culminating in the Hogan Sting Match and that match ending was AWFUL. Nothing but tense build up to have hogan deliver a drop kick and a normal; count from Nick Patrick which they later said was "quick" only to have Hart come out and do another count. A month later the belt is relinquished anyhow? Garbage.

 

[TDFG]

Looking back at it now, it seemed as if it was rushed and WCW was busting to get the belt of Goldberg asap to reincarnate the NWO.

I don't know if politics played a part in it or booking etc. but Goldberg should have held on to the belt a lot longer than what he did, WCW had their monster at the top of the tree and they somehow managed to wreck everything within 24 hours.

 

[Chris1-16]

Of course the taser wasn't a bad idea, despite what revisionist history says no one complained about the taser ending at the time. WCW completely hit the reset button in 99 with Hogan's face turn, the NWO disappearing and there was all kinds of random shit going on.

 

[god-soldier]

The problem was they ended the streak to soon that streak should have been ended by Sting in 1999 at Starrcade when Sting should of went heel for the first time to win. Sting could of used the taser for the win. Goldberg should have never lost at Starrcade 98

 

[Just Do It]

I don't care if somebody shot Bill with a shotgun - the streak shouldn't have ended because it was very over at the time. The wheels started to come off the wagon for WCW after this.